Charting First Encounters

Mapping George Vancouver’s travels through Puget Sound

On the morning of April 30th, 1792, the men of HMS Discovery awoke and took their stations, the wood of the deck still damp from the stormy weather of the previous night. The sky was bright and clear. The winds, favorable. With the Nootka Crisis settled—and war with Spain averted—a year prior, the men had been mustered to survey the American Northwest Coast and to advance British claims and influence in the region. Their commanding officer, Captain George Vancouver, ordered the anchor raised, and they sailed further into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As the ship glided across the water, passing high, sandy cliffs, towering pines, and the ancient faces of snow-capped mountains, Vancouver wrote of “the beautiful scenery that was now presented:”

the surface of the sea was perfectly smooth, and the country before us exhibited every thing that bounteous nature could be expected to draw into one point of view. As we had no reason to imagine that this country had ever been indebted for any of its decorations to the hand of man, I could not possibly believe that any uncultivated country had ever been discovered exhibiting so rich a picture.

Surely, the land that the crew bore witness to was ideal for British settlement. Vancouver envisioned fortresses, new harbors, and trading posts up and down the Northwest coast—it was there for the Crown’s taking. But what of the people who had long known the waters of Puget Sound? Those who had seen its beauty long before the voyage of the Discovery? Those for whom ‘home’ was not so far away?

Note on Accuracy

The points marked on this map are estimations based on the descriptions articulated by George Vancouver in his 1792 logbook, published posthumously in 1801. In the absence of specific coordinates, a degree of assumption is necessary. This project makes no claim that each point is the precise locale of who and what Vancouver witnessed, but does make every effort to map points as accurately as possible via close reading and informed geospatial analysis. Further research will help refine these estimations so as to best chart Vancouver’s encounters with Indigenous peoples 230 years later.